The "Middle East and Terrorism" Blog was created in order to supply information about the implication of Arab countries and Iran in terrorism all over the world. Most of the articles in the blog are the result of objective scientific research or articles written by senior journalists.

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Wednesday, May 4, 2016

Palestinians: Preparing Their People for Statehood? - Khaled Abu Toameh

by Khaled Abu Toameh

Rather than striving to improve the lives of Palestinians, Fatah leaders
spend their time playing at being gangsters, settling scores.

The internecine strife in
Fatah no longer appears restricted to the loyalists of Dahlan and Abbas.
It is threatening to erupt into an all-out war between contesting
camps. Some Palestinians see the internal strife as the most serious
challenge to Abbas's rule over Fatah and the Palestinian Authority,
especially in wake of growing criticism among Palestinians against
Abbas's policies and autocratic regime.

The criticism has escalated following last week's humiliating
defeat of Fatah to Hamas at the student council election of Bir Zeit
University, near Ramallah.

Hamas is thriving on the mayhem among the top brass of Fatah and
disgust with Abbas and the Palestinian leadership in the West Bank.
Rather than striving to improve the lives of Palestinians, Fatah leaders
spend their time playing at being gangsters, settling scores. Meanwhile
Abbas continues his charade of lies with the international community
that he and his Fatah faction are ready for a sovereign state.

Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas's ruling Fatah
faction is supposed to be preparing its people for statehood. But it
seems to be busy with other business.

According to sources in the Gaza Strip, Hamas security forces
recently uncovered a scheme to assassinate a number of senior Fatah
officials living there.

The sources claimed
that ousted Fatah operative Mohamed Dahlan, who has been living in the
United Arab Emirates for the past five years, was the mastermind of the
alleged scheme. Dahlan's men in the Gaza Strip were planning to
assassinate Fatah officials closely associated with his rival, Abbas,
the sources revealed.

After the alleged plot was uncovered, Hamas summoned a number of top
Fatah officials in the Gaza Strip and asked them to take precautionary
measures to ensure their safety.

Abbas and Dahlan have, for the past five years, been at each other's
throats. The two were once close allies and had worked together to
undermine the former Palestinian Authority president, Yasser Arafat.

But the honeymoon between Abbas and Dahlan, a former security
commander in the Gaza Strip and an elected member of the Palestinian
Legislative Council (PLC), ended several years ago.

Abbas woke up one morning and discovered that his erstwhile ally and
friend, Dahlan, was an in fact a bitter enemy. On instructions from
Abbas, Palestinian security officers raided Dahlan's residence in
Ramallah and confiscated documents and personal belongings. Dahlan fled
the West Bank and has not set foot since in Ramallah or any other
Palestinian city.

Next, Abbas had Dahlan dismissed from Fatah on charges of murder and
financial corruption. Since then, Dahlan, who has become an "advisor" to
the rulers of the United Arab Emirates, has been waging a fierce smear
campaign against Abbas and his Fatah loyalists.

Now, the sources in the Gaza Strip are claiming that Dahlan was behind a plot to eliminate those loyalists.

The claim came after clashes erupted between Dahlan and Abbas supporters in parts of the Gaza Strip in recent weeks.

Palestinian
Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (left) and Mohamed Dahlan (right), a
former Fatah commander and minister, have, for the past five years, been
at each other's throats. The two were once close allies and had worked
together to undermine the former PA president, Yasser Arafat. (Image
sources: U.S. State Dept., M. Dahlan Office)

Last week, the Fatah leadership expelled from its ranks nine Dahlan supporters. They were accused of attacking the home of Abdullah Abu Samhadanah, a senior Fatah official and Abbas loyalist.

Earlier, loyalists to Abbas and Dahlan were busy hurling chairs and
stones at each other. The incident took place at a rally to commemorate
slain PLO leader Khalil al-Wazir (Abu Jihad), assassinated by Israeli
commandos in Tunisia in 1988. On May 1, another scuffle broke out
between the two sides, this time in the Gaza Strip's Jebalya refugee
camp. That incident occurred during a rally held on the occasion of
International Workers' Day.

This internecine Fatah strife no longer appears restricted to the
loyalists of Dahlan and Abbas. It is threatening to erupt into an
all-out war between contesting camps. Some Palestinians see the internal
strife as the most serious challenge to Abbas's rule over Fatah and the
Palestinian Authority, especially in wake of growing criticism among
Palestinians against Abbas's policies and autocratic regime.

The criticism has escalated following last week's humiliating defeat
of Fatah to Hamas at the student council election of Bir Zeit
University, near Ramallah. Many in Fatah hold Abbas and his veteran old
guard leaders personally responsible for the defeat.

In a move that shows that the plot inside Fatah is thickening, sources close to Hamas claimed
this week that another senior Fatah official in the West Bank was
behind a plan to liquidate top members of the faction in the Gaza Strip.

According to reports published on a number of Hamas-affiliated
websites, the former head of the General Intelligence Force in the West
Bank, Tawfik Tirawi, was the mastermind behind the alleged scheme. The
reports claimed that Hamas summoned Ahmed Nasr, a top Fatah official,
and informed him of Tirawi's purported plan to kill other Fatah leaders
as well as Nasr himself. Nasr has confirmed that he was asked by Hamas
to take precautionary measures to avoid any attempt on his life.

Hamas claims
that Tirawi's alleged plot was uncovered during the interrogation of
Marwa al-Masri, a senior Fatah member. Hamas security forces arrested
her as she was about to leave the Gaza Strip for Ramallah.

Dahlan and Tirawi, who were once viewed by many Palestinians as
potential successors to Abbas and promising new leaders representing the
"young guard," apparently had different motives behind their alleged
schemes.

While Dahlan may have sought revenge against Abbas and his loyalists,
Tirawi apparently wanted to create instability in the Gaza Strip by
blaming Hamas for the assassination of top Fatah officials.

Dahlan sought revenge against Abbas for expelling him from Fatah and
making him into a "refugee" in the United Arab Emirates. Tirawi, for his
part, wished to undermine Hamas's rule in the Gaza Strip by killing
some of his own colleagues in Fatah.

Tirawi and al-Masri, who has since been released from dentition by
Hamas, have vehemently denied that they were plotting to eliminate
senior Fatah officials in the Gaza Strip.

Whether true or not, Fatah's credibility is crumbling, not only among
the Palestinian public, but also among its own supporters. Hamas is
thriving on the mayhem among the top brass of Fatah and disgust with
Abbas and the Palestinian leadership in the West Bank. Rather than
striving to improve the lives of Palestinians, Fatah leaders spend their
time playing at being gangsters, settling scores. Meanwhile, Abbas
continues his charade of lies with the international community that he
and his Fatah faction are ready for a sovereign state.

Khaled Abu Toameh, an award-winning journalist, is based in Jerusalem.Source: http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/7960/palestinians-preparing-statehood Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.